Spain courts, banks pressure Catalan separatists in crisis

MADRID: Spanish judges ordered Catalan lawmakers Thursday to suspend a planned session that could see the region declare independence as the national government rejected calls for mediation in a volatile standoff.

The social and economic stakes of Spain’s deepest political crisis in a generation mounted as banks planned to shift their domiciles from the region and rival footballers weighed in.

It was not carried out according to regular electoral standards but Puigdemont said it had lent legitimacy to the independence drive.

If Catalonia declares independence, Spain could respond by suspending the region’s existing autonomous status and imposing direct rule from Madrid.

The speaker of the Catalan parliament Carme Forcadell warned such a move “would just increase support for the pro-independence side.”

With its own language and cultural traditions, demands for independence in Catalonia date back centuries but have surged during recent years of economic crisis.

Catalonia is the country’s richest region, accounting for a fifth of Spain’s economy and home to thousands of domestic and foreign companies employing millions of people.

Spain’s fifth-biggest bank Sabadell decided on Thursday to shift its registered domicile away from Catalonia in an administrative process expected to take a few days, a company spokesman said Thursday.

Catalonia’s biggest lender CaixaBank will also hold discussions on Friday about possibly shifting its legal domicile out of the region, a source close to the matter told Agence France-Presse.

Spain’s Finance Minister Luis de Guindos played down the economic threat, insisting Spain would block independence.

“This is not a question of mediation… This is a question about enforcing the law,” he told Bloomberg news agency.

Footballers speak out

Barcelona Football Club, a powerful symbol of Catalan identity, and its captain Andres Iniesta called for dialogue to settle the crisis.

“Before we do any more harm, those who are responsible for all this must hold dialogue. Do it for all of us. We deserve to live in peace,” Iniesta wrote on Facebook.

His Spain team mate Sergio Ramos of Real Madrid said he hoped the crisis will be “resolved as soon as possible,” speaking at a news conference ahead of Friday’s World Cup qualifier against Albania.

But Ramos also said “hats off” to Spain’s King Felipe, who angered Catalan leaders by calling them to drop their independence drive.